The individual kidney function. A comparison between frame summation and deconvolution.

Abstract

A variety of methods have been developed to estimate the individual kidney function. Many methods use a scintillation camera the data from which are processed in a computer system. To compare two of these methods, the principles of which are completely different, such as the 'Oberhausen' method of frame summation and background subtraction and a method that uses deconvolution, the scintillation camera data of 121 patients have been collected. A computer program was written to calculate the individual kidney function by which both methods were used. It is often asserted that specific techniques of frame summation and background subtraction are not suitable to define the individual kidney function. To see if this assertion is true, two different methods have been compared using the contribution of the left kidney to the individual kidney function. An excellent correlation between the two methods was found (R = 0.9808, n = 121) which proves the ability of both the 'Oberhausen' method and the method that uses deconvolution. However, it is also seen that the 'Oberhausen' method may give false results, caused by an increasing background count outside the kidneys in patients with a large difference in function between the two kidneys.